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Recent reports from the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show increases in the numbers of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, being picked up, and placed in their care. Representatives from the Women's Refugee Commission recently conducted a fact-finding mission at the border to discover more about this trend and resulting impacts; KIND serves unaccompanied children who enter the U.S. immigration system alone.

MPI hosts a discussion with experts from KIND and the Women’s Refugee Commission, focusing on causes of the increase in unaccompanied minor migrants, the situation they face once detained, and challenges confronting NGOs trying to provide aid and the U.S. government agencies responsible for processing minors through the system.

This panel discussion on unaccompanied minors focuses on a report by Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) at UC Hastings College of the Law, A Treacherous Journey: Child Migrants Navigating the U.S. Immigration System. The panel moderated by Kathleen Newland, Director of the Refugee Protection Program at MPI, includes speakers Elizabeth Dallam, KIND National Legal Services Director; Lisa Frydman, CGRS Associate Director and Managing Attorney; Karen Musalo, GGRS Director; and KIND Executive Director Wendy Young. The discussion focuses on the conclusion that children face a U.S. immigration system created for adults that is not required to consider the child’s best interests. Unaccompanied children are not provided lawyers to help them navigate the complex requirements of immigration proceedings. The report is available at www.supportkind.org and www.cgrs.uchastings.edu.

A discussion on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, how its educational requirements may be impacting application rates, and recommendations for overcoming the education-success challenges that key subgroups of DACA-DREAM youth face. Webinar participants discuss findings of the report, Diploma, Please: Promoting Educational Attainment for DACA- and Potential DREAM Act-Eligible Youth, which offers a sociodemographic profile of DACA youth and highlights some promising programs, emerging models, and policy contexts in states such as California, Texas, New York, Illinois, Georgia, and Washington State.

In 2010, nearly one in four U.S. children under 18 was the child of an immigrant. Latino, Black, Asian, and multiracial children together are nearing a majority of the nation’s children. Not surprisingly, scholarship has focused on the largest immigrant groups: the children of Latinos and Asians. Far less academic attention has been paid to the rapidly diversifying Black immigrant child population.

To examine this population, MPI has released a major volume, Young Children of Black Immigrants in America: Changing Flows, Changing Faces, which provides demographic overviews of Black immigrants in the U.S. and their children. The event discussion will touch on the intersection of race and immigration, will focus on the demographics of this population, their educational success, and implications of the volume’s findings.

This event marks the release of the MPI brief Executive Action for Unauthorized Immigrants: Estimates of the Populations that Could Receive Relief. With the Obama administration contemplating executive action in the immigration arena, immigrant-rights leaders, members of Congress, and others have proposed a number of options for executive action that President Obama could take to provide relief from deportation to more of the nation’s estimated 11.7 million unauthorized immigrants. Among the options are extending deferred action to populations beyond those eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and further refining the enforcement priorities that guide deportations. In this briefing, MPI experts unveil their findings, providing estimates of the numbers who may benefit from potential approaches to administrative relief.

Given the unique position of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program at the convergence of the immigration and education fields, MPI has sought to capture the ways in which local educational institutions, legal service providers, and youth advocates have responded to DACA’s first phase. Conducting interviews with stakeholders in states with large immigrant populations—California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Texas—MPI examined initiatives by educational institutions and other community stakeholders to support DACA youth’s education and training success. Those findings are offered in a report, Lessons from the Local Level: DACA’s Implementation and Impact on Education and Training Success. Report authors discuss key challenges facing legal service providers and educators serving DACA youth, along with lessons for new and ongoing efforts seeking to support the implementation of the DACA and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability programs.

This webinar covers the findings from MPI's report about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative and eligible populations two years after its implementation. In this briefing, MPI researchers present their analysis of the immediately and potentially eligible DACA populations nationally and for leading states, as well as broader sociodemographic findings, including English proficiency, educational attainment, poverty level, and more. They also discuss the broader implications of DACA for U.S. immigration and integration policy, as well as lessons that can be applied to the program’s next phase or possible executive action that might expand deferred action to other unauthorized immigrant populations. The webinar also introduces MPI's latest data tool, which provides estimates for the U.S. and 41 states of the current and potentially eligible DACA populations, as well as detailed profiles for the U.S. and 25 states.

Consider this fact: One in four children in the United States is the child of an immigrant. The well-being of these children does and continues to have a profound impact on the social and economic strength of this country. With that in mind, the Migration Policy Institute's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy convened a major public policy research symposium focused on young children of immigrants in the United States.

While policies that crucially influence the development of young children (birth through age 10) of immigrants are typically examined through a specific policy lens, this conference lies uniquely at the intersection of not just early education and health but immigration policy.

This webinar exploring findings from MPI's report, Critical Choices in Post-Recession California: Investing in the Educational and Career Success of Immigrant Youth, which focuses on the implications of California's public education system reforms for the state's 3.3 million first- and second-generation immigrant young adults and their families. The report's authors, joined by Christopher Edley, Jr., and Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, discuss the critical choices California policymakers make as the state emerges from a deep budget crisis and decides where to make new investments in education.

MPI hosts this discussion with USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas talking about the application process and policies that the agency has announced to implement the administration’s deferred action program. Director Mayorkas’ presentation is followed by a panel discussion on additional questions and challenges of implementing the new program.

This webinar discusses the report Immigrant Parents and Early Childhood Programs: Addressing Barriers of Literacy, Culture, and Systems Knowledge, which examines the growing population of young children ages 8 and under with an immigrant parent, and the parents' engagement with early childhood care and education programs. Presenters include the report's authors as well as Miriam Calderon, former Senior Policy Advisor for Early Learning with the White House Domestic Policy Council, and Eliza Leighton, Director of Promise Neighborhood Langley Park Program with CASA de Maryland.

Related Media

Unaccompanied Minors and Their Journey through the U.S. Immigration System

A Treacherous Journey: Child Migrants Navigating the U.S. Immigration System

Realizing the DACA and DREAM Promise: Actions to Support Educational Attainment of Potentially Eligible Immigrant Youth

Young Children of Black Immigrants in America: Changing Flows, Changing Faces

Extending New Relief to Unauthorized Immigrants: Estimating the Impacts of Possible Executive Actions

Lessons from DACA’s Implementation and its Impact on Education and Training

MPI's President, Demetrios G. Papademetriou, and the Editor-in-Chief of The American Prospect, Kit Rachlis, engage in a lively Google Hangout discussion about the policies and politics that have created the United States' antiquated, inflexible immigration system and how to create a modern-day, flexible immigration system suited for the competitiveness of the 21st century.

This discussion covers some of the most difficult issues that must be addressed if the United States is to reform its immigration system in ways that work not only for today’s reality but tomorrow’s future.

A delegation of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) visited Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq in late November to discuss the humanitarian crisis with refugees, officials from host and donor governments, representatives of international humanitarian organizations and local nongovernmental agencies; and to get a firsthand look at the work of IRC partners and staff who are directly involved in providing assistance to the refugees and to Syrians trapped inside the country.

The event discussion, which touched on the intersection of race and immigration, focused on the demographics of Black immigrants (both African and Caribbean) in the United States and their children, their educational success, and the implications of the recently released volume’s findings for research and public policy.

How the anti-immigrant political movement and rancorous debates surrounding immigration will impact countries’ ability to build strong economies and vibrant, diverse societies is yet to be determined. This discussion focuses on the factors and players that contribute to this environment, an analysis on the current situation in both Europe and the United States, and a discussion on its implications for community cohesion and national identity in European countries and the United States.

This awards ceremony, honoring the 2011 recipients of the E Pluribus Unum Prizes — a national awards program for exceptional immigrant integration initiatives — featured panel discussions with the awardees and federal officials and remarks by White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Muñoz and Assistant Secretary of Education Brenda Dann-Messier.

The conference offered law and policy analysis and discussion on cutting-edge immigration issues. Featured panelists included high-ranking government officials, academics, advocates, and other immigration experts.

Doris Meissner, Director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at MPI, offers her knowledge and expertise regarding border security in this testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

This discussion focuses on the MPI report, "Executive Action on Immigration: Six Ways to Make the System Work Better," which outlines administrative actions that can be implemented to improve the immigration system.

287(g) programs have surged into the public consciousness in recent years. Now operating in 72 jurisdictions, the 287(g) program authorizes state and local law enforcement officers to screen people for immigration status, issue detainers to hold unauthorized immigrants on immigration violations, and begin the process of their removal from the United States.

In a report by MPI's Labor Markets Initiative, noted economist and Georgetown University Public Policy Institute Professor Harry J. Holzer examines the economic reasoning and research on these questions and looks at the policy options that shape the impact of less-skilled immigration on the economy. The discussion is on what policy reform would best serve native-born American workers, consumers, and employers, as well as the overall U.S. economy.

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The winners of the Migration Policy Institute's 2012 E Pluribus Unum Prizes, honoring exceptional immigrant integration initiatives in the United States, discussed their work during a plenary luncheon on September 24, 2012 at the National Immigrant Integration Conference held in Baltimore, MD.

A webinar on language access contracting for federal, state, and local officials, agency administrators, and community stakeholders concerned with the oversight and implementation of language access provision.

This joint Migration Policy Institute and International Organization for Migration event marks the Issue brief launch of Regulating Private Recruitment in the Asia-Middle East Labour Migration Corridor.

Join MPI as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas discusses the application process and policies that the agency has announced to implement the administration’s deferred action program.

MPI is pleased to host a discussion with experts from both KIND and the Women’s Refugee Commission, focusing on the causes of the increase in unaccompanied minor migrants, the situation these minors face once detained or apprehended, and the challenges confronting both nongovernmental organizations trying to provide aid and the U.S. government agencies responsible for processing minors through the system.

This discussion highlights the best practices and experiences of different countries in engaging and maximizing the contributions that diasporas can and do make to the development of their country of origin, and more broadly the experience of policymakers in both sending and receiving countries and the related challenges and opportunities they face.

This discussion includes a status of preparation of the 2012 GFMD summit, including a discussion on the possible ideas and projects presently being contemplated that would fully integrate migration into the development framework, with a special focus on Africa.

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In the Spotlight

These interactive maps on MPI’s Data Hub display populations of refugees and asylum seekers by origin and country of residence. Learn which countries lead in refugee resettlement, where particular refugee populations have dispersed around the world, and more.

MPI has compiled in one easy-to-access location its key research and data resources on issues, policies, enforcement programs, and more that relate to the immigration reform debate underway in Washington.

With the question of birthright citizenship back in the news, it is a timely moment to review this MPI policy brief, The Demographic Impacts of Repealing Birthright Citizenship. The brief finds that repeal of birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants would significantly increase the size of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States, from 11 million today to 16 million by 2050.

Use our interactive maps, with the latest available data, to learn where immigrant populations, by country or region of birth, live in the United States—at state, county, and metro levels. Interested in the top immigrant populations in your state or metro area? Check out our maps.